As costs of energy increase along with concerns about global warming due to consumption of fossil fuels to generate energy, there is an every increasing need for more efficient lighting technologies. These demands, coupled with rapid improvements in semiconductors and related manufacturing technologies, are driving a trend in the lighting industry toward the use of light emitting diodes (LEDs) or other solid state light sources to produce light for lighting applications, as replacements for incandescent lighting and eventually as replacements for other older less efficient light sources.
To provide efficient mixing of the light from a number of sources and a pleasing uniform light output, Advanced Optical Technologies, LLC (AOT) of Herndon, Va. has developed a variety of lighting fixture configurations that utilize light from a number of solid state sources. By way of example, a variety of structures for AOT's lighting systems are described in US Patent Application Publications 2007/0138978, 2007/0051883 and 2007/0045524, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein entirely by reference.
These developments not withstanding, in this age of ever increasing concern over energy consumption, there is always a need for techniques to provide lighting applications that are energy efficient, but which also can generate a visibly pleasing light distribution.